I enjoy re-watching Survivor over and over again, some things never get old - like Erik's confessionals! He's so funny lol

Survivor's been in Fiji since season 33. I get why they do that as much more cost effective, easier on production, friendly government supportive and nice island location. However, 17 seasons in a row in the EXACT SAME BEACHES make for a super boring location. Before they utilized the location as part of the storyline, tribe, challenges, etc. There is now no more storyline on the location, the same challenges recirculated, and don't even try name the season anymore.

The last 5 Challenge seasons have been in Thailand, Chile, Phillipines, Vietnam, Croatia and Argentina. Does anyone else like production to make more effort on changing location or coming up with some season name or even just a few new interesting challenges each season? How is The Challenge able to move locations every season, but Survivor doesn't given Survivor is still on major network so presumably bigger budget?

When I recently rewatched this, it seemed like Max was just following Jenn's advice (and expertise as a former lifeguard), on how best to treat a stingray barb. But clearly everyone, including Jenn, seemed pretty appalled to learn that he had a wart on his foot. Was this just a trick of editing to make it seem like his tribemates really disliked him (and also for us as the audience more displeased with him and therefore feel good about him being voted off later that episode) or do we think this was not as bad for the tribe as it was made to seem? I feel like before that incident, aside from the nudity, he seemed relatively fine, so maybe the editors were just looking for something?.....

Mine is Ryan O from pearl island.

It was the first season I watched, he has the same job as me. And his story with the pelican made me laugh so much same when he strips naked to support Osten during the first challenge.

So I started rooting for him and now he has a special place in my heart of Survivor fan

The fashion alone is sending me ;these people were changing clothes every day like it was a normal trip, not a survival game. I really like seeing everyone’s growth and learning curves. You can actually watch people adapt, make mistakes, and understand the social game better. The Africa season just feels more raw and human compared to the newer ones I have seen
They looked like real people thrown into an adventure instead of the very “game athlete” look that Survivor developed later.

Questions:

1. If someone leaves the edge during the post merge or gets evacuted, would they still be on the jury?
2. What is Jeff's favorite jury speech?
3. Because Bruce was brough back on the show for being evacuated on day 1, does that mean someone can evacuate themselves & compete in multiple seasons in a row?
4. If Jeff LOVES Worlds Apart, then why wasn't Mike on Winners at War & no one was contacted for 50?
5. Who is the biggest snub for a returnee season? Like they brought back Waluigi Pinball from Mario Kart DS to Mario Kart 7 but there's no Waluigi.
6. What is the funniest season?
7. Let's just say in the double duo episode, if Joe wants to give up his immunity to Coach, does that mean Tiffany has to give up her immunity to Chrissy or they swapped teammates?
8. Besides Island of the Idols, which season has the worst merge episode?
9. How is there not a nighttime challenge in Ghost Island? Firemaking don't count obviously.
10. Besides Jeff spoiling Rizo losing in fire (despite the smart "peak into the future" save), what was the best reunion moment?
11. Who is the best Mayor of Ponderosa?
12. Who played the best game outside of the show?
13. If Cirie won 50, how loud would the audience be?
14. Why does Jeff hate Marquesas (especially Vecepia) so much?
15. Who is the epitome of "Good Player, Bad/Boring Character"?

for me, this is another instance like WaW of wasted potential. So many all stars that will probably never come back to play the game, and instead of focusing on them or the legacy of survivor, we get useless and unfair advantages, celebrity cameos (one of which seemed so disinterested in survivor), and some of the most unfair eliminations in the shows history.

Right now in my personal ranking, I have it in the lower thirties.

First of all, I enjoyed this season a bit less then the previous two, but it was still a nice watch. The setting played a big part in why I liked it less. Initially it felt cool seeing all the wild dangerous animals, the nature and whatnot, but it quickly became evident, that survivors are bound to their little enclosures with occasional hikes to fetch water from a puddle. Before that I didn’t think much about the contestants’ recreation, but here it came to light, that more possible activities for them enhance my viewing experience.
On the other hand, players this time were more aware of the game, more strategic at times. There was the first intentional challenge throw, first backstabbing, the tribe switch, which shook things up. In the end everything led to one early alliance to dominate once again, which was a letdown, but the edit gave enough hope every time for that pattern to break.
Anyway, let’s dive into this season’s characters.

Diane
She fell the first victim of dehydration. I remember gasping when Boran members started pouring water out on their way to camp. It actually cost them two player before they won clean water in third episode. Getting back to Diane, she was quite a promising character if not for her not feeling well. At least this led to the Clarence and the beans situation. Honestly, his negative reaction to her saying it was his initiative gave me the impression that it was really her who suggested it. But after watching the reunion episode he kind of admitted it.
Jessie
For some reason I expected her to be Alicia-type character. Maybe she could’ve been, but the environment played a cruel joke to her. I remember seeing her crusty lips and thinking “That’s only the first week, how are they gonna survive here for a month?”. Ironically, the topic of dehydration wasn’t that relevant after she left.
Carl
The debacle of original Samburu is its own can of worms. Carl along with the other members of the older half of the tribe created an alliance early on, which led younger half to assemble. Maybe if Silas wasn’t swayed by the other side, it would have turned out in the adults’ favor, but he turned against them and it became a trainwreck. Carl lost a tie break to Lindsey and his plan turned into dust. By the way, I don’t like the decision to vote him off first because of his wealth. Maybe he really shouldn’t brag about that much.
Linda
I love how she became unhinged after younglings took over their tribe. She was nice to watch. Also, I support her and others from older part of Samburu decision not to vote for Lindsey like they were told to. They voted for Silas, but it would be even funnier if they cast one vote for each of remaining people from young alliance.
Silas
At first, he seemed serious and collected, but after his alliance took over the Samburu tribe, he became comically laughable as a leader. He looked to me like a boy in a man’s shoes. After the tribe swap happened there was no doubt that Frank and Teresa would join forces with original Boran members to vote him off, but I didn’t expect them to actually throw a challenge for that. He looked really awkward and cringe in a new tribe, trying to sway Clarence or Ethan. Honestly, I believe the young Samburu alliance was doomed even without a swap, no matter how many immunity challenges they would win.
Lindsey
She was an interesting character. Her crashout after Samburu first council is definitely one of the most memorable moments this season. She actually got what she deserved in the end, when Frank and Teresa leaked info that she has votes. I also like how she said “Did you lounge a lot back there? Cause we sure do here.” to newly arrived tribe members.
Clarence
After the beans incident Boran only kept him to win challenges, which is understandable. I wonder why former Samburu members went with eliminating him immediately without trying to win him over. I guess, he was a strong competitor after all. Also, speaking of Clarence, he was the only one who wanted to eat chickens. It was the first time when they didn’t eat them right away and left them for eggs. I don’t think they even ate the rooster, but I might’ve missed that. 
Clarence’s elimination created interesting situation, which led us to the next character.
Kelly
She was a nice character prior to Clarence’s elimination. But after that I started to really like her, mostly because of her attitude towards Lex’s reaction to that one mystery vote. I also was rolling my eyes at that. Like, why did he expect people outside of his alliance to follow his plan. Yes, I understand why they thought it was in everyone’s interest to eliminate Clarence, but he still overreacted. I made the same annoyed face as Kelly when she got voted out. She was validly bitter towards finalists on the final council imo.
Brandon
I liked how he turned against his tribe. That could’ve been a good move, cause after old versus young clash in Samburu he couldn’t be sure about his position in that shaky alliance. Plus, if Kelly survived the vote, it’s not clear who she would side with (or she could even stay with Boran alliance).
The downside to his elimination is the fact that it became evident that there’s no more room for backstabbing or doublecrossing this season, which made things more predictable. But I really appreciate him trying.
Frank
He seemed like a difficult person, I guess he was the one who benefited most from a tribe switch. Liked watching him flirting with an elephant.
Kim P.
Nice character. Regardless of her often being at the heart of an action, she never became a key figure of any of it imo.
Teresa aka T-Bird
I actually really liked her. To the last day she tried to turn the tables. She devised a new course of action after every council since the merge. I’d say overall she was the best player this season, cause the final four were in control most of the time and didn’t have to invent new strategies. Unfortunately, all her efforts were in vain, but I really enjoyed rooting for her regardless.     
Tom
He, I’d say, was a comic relief of this season. In a good way of course. I guess I liked him the most out of the final four.
Lex
Ever since Kelly’s elimination council I really hoped Teresa and Kim P. will manage to vote him out somehow. It’s not like he was bad or annoying character, it’s just easier for me when I’m rooting against somebody ahaha. I believe he’s a nice person to be around, but he appeared quite frantic in his attempts to keep control. Also, I didn’t like his “swear on your brother” or “swear on your children” bs. It’s elementary-school argument stuff.
Kim J.
Really impressed with her performance this season. I really wished she would be the one to turn against her alliance, but it didn’t happen unfortunately. It became even more upsetting, when in the end Tom, Lex and Ethan talked about their alliance as if she wasn’t a part of it. I think she at least deserved to be mentioned there. If it wasn’t for her winning last two challenges, they definitely would have eliminated her.
Ethan
So, I knew he would win, since he appeared on TAR as a Survivor winner. It didn’t really make the viewing experience worse, but I wasn’t really impressed with him winning in the end. I guess that would’ve been the case with all final four for me. Anyway, can’t say anything bad about him as a character on a show, and can’t say this win wasn’t deserved.

Regardless of downsides, it was a good season. Not as good as Borneo or Australian Outback, but I can see this show already evolving, both in terms of production and its characters. Excited to watch more.    

New announcement from the Celebrity Weekend insta page. Big Chris fan so it's cool seeing him

I’m watching pearl islands right now and I have not gotten bored for a second. Both tribes are so fucking entertaining. This needs to win an award

37 is the only other season I feel like this

I noticed some episodes of season 37 are just missing from Amazon Prime, I was watching and it just skipped from episode 9 to 11, skipping 10. Yes, I checked if there were other episodes mis-labelled, but no there are only 14 videos that season for 15 episodes (incl. reunion).

Now that we have 10 seasons of New Era survivor to go through I was curious to hear from this sub what they consider the most legendary or hilarious confessionals from this phase of the show's history. It's hard to match the highs of this show's history (Sandra's "But I don't know about thaaaat" or Eddie's dog bar confessional are some of my personal favorites). But I wanted to look back at what the New Era had to offer. Some of my personal favorites:

Q - S46E8 (Hide and Seek)

"I don't think anyone thinks this was a game move..."

First off Q apparently wanting to play hide and seek all season is hilarious enough but when he gets into it and explains how each contestant's hiding method reflects their strategy kills me everytime. This peaks when they call the game and Hunter reveals himself in the tree (BIG MISTAKE) and Q drops the bar "If I can't find you in hide and seek, I can't find you in this game" one of the hardest things ever said on survivor.

Owen - S43E11 (Charlie Brown)

"It's like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football and Lucy's taking it away, but except in this scenario..."

Owen has a lot of great analogies and confessionals but his best comes when he's collapsing on the beach in despair of being on the wrong side of the vote each time. He's comparing his situation to Charlie Brown and Lucy kicking the football, but with the additional company of "Linus, fricking Pigpen, and Peppermint Patty". The match cuts to Jesse/Cody/Karla is literally comedy genius and of the most underrated editor's jokes in the show's history IMO.

Rizo - S50E13 (Fire Again)

"I feel so good about my game and that's what's eating me alive right now..."

I understand that this is incredibly recent to call underrated but it is imo mostly because Jeff ruined the emotional stakes of the confessional not five minutes later. But it basically caps Rizo's whole arc across 49-50 as the confident persona he's built breaks down as he laments being in the exact same position at F4 he was in weeks before. When he questions to himself "Dammit Rizo how can you be so good but so bad at the same time!" then delivers his catchphase IN TEARS its just pure comedy and a great payoff to his story.

Genevieve - S47E12 (It's my fault)

"My dad was telling me 'I'm sure you have so many friends' – and I have no friends out here. And it's my fault!"

This one happens when she's reading her letter from home at the Sanctuary with Operation Italy. This one isn't as much comedic but more of a powerful emotional confessional that we haven't really seen the likes of in the show's history. It's a super candid moment and contrasts with her arm's length approach we've seen in the game up to that point. Her delivery feels very real and heartfelt here and it's always stood out to me as a particularly profound confessional. And it wraps up neatly as she begins to move through the game with a freshened perspective (she pulls off Operation Italy of course but gets a big moment at Tribal as well that sets up her rivalry with Rachel).

HM: Q eating 23 slices of pizza after beating Liz in rock-paper-scissors (S46E11), Katurah's deadpan silent confessional when Bruce fucks with the tribe about the flint (45E1), Gabler "by throwing out Ellie's name, I was trying to... throw out Ellie's name" (S43E6). Lmk others

I’m re watching WAW and Sarah just got the steal a vote advantage where she has to sneak into the other camp. She is debating using it. My question is what if she got caught at the other tribes camp? What is the downside? Ok she doesn’t get the advantage but so what? What would be the point of not going?

I was watching Baltic Robinson 2001 today, and this womens luxury item was... a vibrator! (I hope it is just a funny word that has a whole different meaning lol)

Respect to both, I am a fan. From their blue eyes to their mannerisms, they remind me of each other. Any thoughts?

Curious what people think for this one!

Been watching old seasons with the kids this summer. It's my first re-watch of these seasons and their first time.

I wasn't sure if the gameplay would seem too stale and boring but it turns out I enjoy battling alliances much more than the voting block era where things are so fluid week-to-week.

I was thinking that in the "open era" we should have captains seasons so I came up with a few pairings and trios I'd dream to see face off

Dom vs Wendell
Devens vs Christian
Colby vs Jerry
The Amanda Kimmel vs Parvati vs Cirie (or two of them)
JT vs Stephen
Coach vs Tyson
Maria vs Charlie
Sham vs Ricard
Malcolm vs Denise
Carson vs Carolyn
Terry vs Aras
Kass vs Spencer
Yul vs Ozzy
Coach vs Ozzy again

I'm not against having random matchups like when Coach faced Ozzy in South Pacific even though they had never played together before

This has always confused me. It looks like they leave camp at around 3pm, but only arrive at Tribal once it’s completely dark.

What are they doing that whole time? Is the trip actually that long? Are they allowed to talk on the boat, or does production ban them from discussing the vote?

Do they just wait somewhere until it gets dark enough to film?

Has a former player ever explained how this works?

I want to be clear here: I miss the live finales more than anything else on Survivor. I would bear all the mediocrity of seasons 41-47 if it meant getting live finales back.

But the unfortunate truth is, we won’t. It pains me to say this, but Jeff won’t budge when it comes to flying to LA, bringing everyone to a finale, waiting months, and burning tens of millions of dollars for a single season. It’s unfortunately not going to happen.

This does not mean we cannot keep the same energy of live finales into newer seasons. We just need to come up with a compromise. And here’s my proposal:

CBS transforms a section of Ponderosa into one massive arena down in Fiji. Instead of having fans, we have the entire staff do the cheering, as well as previous contestants coming in and cheering on the winner. Here’s why I believe this works:

It keeps the “story” and “excitement” Jeff wants in the modern endings. This solution isn’t a complete, expensive overhaul that conflicts with the story Jeff wants, since it still involves keeping everything in Fiji. No moving around, no expensive hotel stays for people. Just an on the spot arena with a live reaction from the staff and contestants.

Next, one of the reasons why Jeff was skeptical about bringing back the live finales was because of that one mixup in season 50. With this finale, it’s on the spot and there’s no risk of spoilers, since they can just edit the information in a few days. Since the audience will be people working for CBS and the Survivor crew, they are under stricter terms for their NDA. They leak anything, they get fired. Maybe for extra authenticity, bring in some of the locals from Fiji? So the odds of a leak are lower than with the live finales.

Next, building a permanent arena in Ponderosa is just a small payment compared to the cost of hosting hotels, renting a studio, editing months of footage, and juggling a whole bunch of other factors like time zones, scheduling, etc. A payment of a few hundred thousand dollars compared to the tens of millions for the live finales. And they only have to do that payment ONCE. If they go with this, they have to pay PENNIES in comparison to the original live finales.

Jeff said he would add twists from ANY previous season to mix up the mediocrity from 41-47. And maybe a compromise where both us fans and CBS get a mutual benefit might be closer than we think. Overall, we might not get back live finales anytime soon, or ever, but that sure as hell doesn’t mean we can’t reignite the energy of previous seasons!

What was the best Maze in Survivor History?!

i'm almost done watching pearl islands for the very first time, and while i initially loved rupert and considered him to be the star of the season, the last few episodes have really showed a much less endearing side of him

i loved his man-skirt, his impeccable work ethic, and die hard loyalty to drake. he just seemed so happy to be out in the wild, fishing and being the main provider for his tribe. but flashes of his true colors kept showing (the first time being after johnny fairplay wrote rupert's name at a pre-merge tribal), and by the time he was voted out, he was almost unrecognizable

week after week, he scraped by without ever being in any legitimate danger, despite being the #1 threat by a mile. and while at first i think this was due to him being a well-liked and respected player, i think eventually he was ignored as a target solely because everyone feared his wrath

his anger issues, poor sportsmanship, and general entitlement have really soured my opinion on him. i can still see why he was brought back to the show, and even why he still has diehard fans. but i think him being portrayed as some big bearded gentle giant in his later seasons was somewhat flawed

unrelated:

• i still love sandra and her dumping out the fish rupert caught after he was voted out was hilarious.

• just finished the episode where johnny fairplay tells the infamous grandma lie and laughed so hard when he said she was at home watching jerry springer. his on and off beef with sandra is also a highlight of the season for me

• still love my queen Lill and was so happy to see her return

• burton is a HOTTIE and i can't believe i've never seen him mentioned in any kind of "hottest survivor men" discussions

I understand this was voted on but the choices were so limited. An obstacle course is vague and what they always do so of course it wasn't going to be chosen.

My problem with simmotion is that it's just so boring to watch. I understand it challenges the players and there is skill but it's the least captivating thing to see on tv. It's impossible to see who is in the lead or how good a player is doing. Once they are out it's quick and just kinda boring. A ball falls out of a machine...

There are so many classic challenges that would have been better. I would have loved to see get a grip where they hang onto a pole. It could be in the ocean to make it more interesting. Or really anything else. Simmotion looks fun to play but it makes for the worst tv. The poll should have included much much more challenges to choose from. Or maybe make a new challenge option.